1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an absorbent device which is a species of sanitary napkin commonly denominated a pantiliner.
2. Background Art
Sanitary napkins are used by women principally during their menstrual periods to receive and contain menses and other vaginal discharges to protect their garments from soiling. While early versions of sanitary napkins required the use of various specialized belts and supporters, modern designs provide for the adhesive attachment of the sanitary napkin directly to the crotch region of the user's undergarment, normally her panty. Modern sanitary napkins can be efficient and effective at accomplishing their intended purposes.
Many women in modern society have developed the habit of wearing an absorbent device between their menstrual periods to protect their clothing from any small quantity of vaginal discharges then present. Sanitary napkins are frequently used for this purpose. While such use is efficient, conventional sanitary napkins are usually rather bulky (because they are designed to contain relatively large volumes of fluid) and their use is less comfortable to the wearer than the use of an undergarment along.
Devices which are less bulky, and consequently more comfortable to use, than conventional sanitary napkins have appeared in the consumer market. These devices are usually intended to be affixed to the crotch region of the user's undergarment during times between her menstrual periods, during times when menstrual flow is light, and as supplemental protection for other catamenial products. They have, because of their use and relatively small size, been called pantiliners or, in some literature, panty liners.
Frequently, pantiliners are scaled down versions of conventional sanitary napkins. The present invention departs from this practice by providing a unique, exemplary device designed specifically to be a pantiliner.
Morse, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,371,667 issued Mar. 5, 1968, describes a sanitary napkin comprising a conventional wrapper, a "functional, highly porous resilient element immediately adjacent the surface of the absorbent product which is to be placed against the body and which element serves to entrap highly viscous, mucoid and gelatinous constituents of the body fluids," and a "highly absorbent, relatively dense core." The resilient element is of low density and can comprise synthetic fibers such as polyamides and polyesters. It is said to be essential that these fibers be stablized. The interstitial walls of the low density web are rendered hydrophilic by treatment with a wetting agent.
Harwood et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,029,817 issued Apr. 17, 1962, describe a sanitary napkin comprising an absorbent core or batt and a control element. The batt is "of a conventional highly absorbent material of the type used for absorbent bandages," and the control element "preferably consists of fluid repellent fibers such as synthetic fibers, but certain other fibers which to some extent are wetable may be employed." It is preferred that the fibers in the control element "range in length from about one inch upwardly."